WEST (CBSDFW.COM) — The families of three firefighters killed in the West fertilizer plant explosion reached a settlement agreement Sunday. The agreement came just hours before jury selection was set to begin for a trial Monday.Phone calls started going out to hundreds of potential jurors Sunday, telling them not to report to jury duty for the case Monday. However, the agreement does not affect the cases of hundreds of other plaintiffs who have filed suit over the April 2013 explosion.The blast killed 15 people and destroyed homes, schools and a nearby nursing home. The community is rebuilding, with a new combined high school and middle school set to open in fall 2016.The first trial was supposed to include the families of Kevin Sanders, William Uptmor and Kenneth Harris, who was a Dallas firefighter. Terms of the agreement were not immediately available. Attorneys were said to be still finalizing paperwork late Sunday afternoon.McClennan County updated its court site with a message to potential jurors Sunday evening. “A settlement has been reached covering the portions of the cases you were summoned for,” it read in part.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

Authorities say the fire that caused the deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant in 2013 was a criminal act.

Federal and state investigators said Wednesday that they're investigating who was responsible for causing the fire at the West Fertilizer Co. facility on April 17, 2013, in the town of West.

The fire caused ammonium nitrate to ignite, triggering a massive explosion that killed 15 people, injured hundreds and left part of the small town in ruins.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the state fire marshal's office previously issued reports faulting the storage of the fertilizer, emergency response and other factors contributing to a blast, which registered as an earthquake of magnitude 2.1.

But authorities hadn't previously indicated what specifically caused the fire.Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office revealed the cause of fire to be arson.

Families of the those killed have struggled to find answers to what happened on April 17, 2013.

That night, a fire broke out at the West Fertilizer Co. in the town of West, about 70 miles south of Dallas. Twenty minutes later, the plant exploded with such force it caused a magnitude-2.1 earthquake.

"It was like a nuclear bomb went off," West Mayor Tommy Muska said.

A deafening boom echoed for miles. The blast stripped a 50-unit apartment complex of its walls and windows.

It was "massive -- just like Iraq, just like the Murrah (Federal) Building in Oklahoma City," said D.L. Wilson of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The blast also left a crater almost 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep.

Twelve emergency responders were among the 15 people killed. The explosion wounded another 200 people in the town of 2,800.

About a month after the blast, the state fire marshal's office said four potential causes -- weather, natural causes, anhydrous ammonium, and ammonium nitrate in a rail car -- had been eliminated.

But State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said investigators were not able to rule out three possible causes, including a spark from a golf cart, an electrical short or an intentionally set fire.

The West Fertilizer Co., which operated the facility, had warned state and local officials but not federal agencies that it had 270 tons of highly volatile ammonium nitrate on site, according to regulatory records.

The company had been cited by federal regulators twice since 2006.

A U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigation concluded the explosion was preventable, board chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso said on the one-year anniversary of the blast.

The investigation blamed the company that owned the fertilizer plant, government regulators and other authorities for the catastrophe.

"It resulted from the failure of a company to take the necessary steps to avert a preventable fire and explosion and from the inability of federal, state and local regulatory agencies to identify a serious hazard and correct it," Moure-Eraso said.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

WEST, Texas (KXAN) — State Fire Marshals have just announced the deadly West Fertilizer Plant explosion fire from April 2013 was a criminal act and ruled incendiary.

It’s been three years since an ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Texas. On April 17, 2013, 15 people died, 12 were first responders.

Wednesday, the Houston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office announced the origin and cause of the plant fire and explosion. At this time investigators have funneled over $2 million into the case and say they are on the right path to solving the West explosion. This is ATF’s largest investigation to date.

However, it is too early for investigators to say if murder charges await a suspect accused of starting the fire. So far no arrests have been made, but numerous leads have resulted from more than 500 interviews.

Anyone with any information about the explosion is asked to call (245)753-2457. There is up to a $52,000 reward waiting for information that leads to an arrest.

“In addition to 15 deaths, many others were injured. The explosion caused damage in a 37 block area. 500 homes were damaged. A crater 93 wide and 12 feet deep was created at the scene of the blast,” said Robert Elder with ATF.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

WEST, Texas (AP) — A Central Texas town devastated by a 2013 fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people, many of them emergency personnel, has reached a settlement of its lawsuit for damages caused by the blast.

The city council in West this week approved of accepting $10.44 million to settle its claims against the defendants, including makers and suppliers of ammonium nitrate, the explosive fertilizer involved in the blast, and Adair Grain Inc., owner of the fertilizer plant itself.

In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Tommy Muska said he is pleased with the settlement.